


Come What May AU Ideas

by Cerillen



Category: Trolls (2016)
Genre: Cus I make no promises, Just rambles that may or may not sound nice in certain moments, Made an AU cause the obsession has overcome me, Might make proper fics out of it later, Might not, No proper fics here, This is just a compilation of all of my ideas and headcanons for my AU, dont get your hopes up, hopefully, its fine, probably, whatever
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:00:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23687302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerillen/pseuds/Cerillen
Summary: Just some ramblings about an AU I made. Basic rundown of said AU is this.Branch is actually an entirely different kind of Troll which makes being grey a normal state of being for him.A strange sort of magical bond involving the royal family leads to Poppy and Branch binding themselves to each other without Poppy realizing it while Branch just keeps quiet about it because he doesn't want to freak out Poppy.King Peppy knows exactly what's going on from the start and is being a bit of a sneak about it because he's just mischievous that way.Branch is still very isolated but he cares intensely about both Poppy and the rest of the village so he basically spends all of his time doing whatever he can to make the village as safe as possible without anyone realizing he's the one doing it.But Poppy and Peppy definitely do notice so he's basically dragged, kicking and screaming, into the royal family fold without anybody else noticing until things make the very drastic shift they always make after peace is made with the Bergens in the movie plotline.There's a lot of little details and stuff, of course, but that's the basic rundown.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	1. Can't Take It

**Author's Note:**

> Popping into a new fandom again because I rewatched Trolls on Easter and have spent each day since then reading thru literally all of the fanfics for this fandom on AO3.  
> So, y’know, the obsession is here and it is real and I need to deal with it before my brain explodes like it literally did when this happened with Steven Universe a couple weeks ago.  
> So here’s a not-so-quick rundown of an AU my brain conjured up to satisfy that obsession.  
> I haven’t seen the new movie or the series or anything.  
> All of my knowledge is based off of fanfics and the first movie.  
> Everything outside of that is just me coming up with whatever I feel makes sense.  
> With that in mind, let’s get into it.

A long long time ago, before the Bergens appeared and changed the Pop Troll’s way of life entirely, the Trolls lived slightly less cheerful lives.

They were still a very joyful race.

It was in their very nature, after all.

But, without the semi-protection they would eventually gain from the Bergens surrounding their home, they were left at the mercy of their surroundings.

And all of the predators that existed within them.

This meant that it was important for the Trolls to be capable of defending themselves.

This led to the Trolls splitting into two separate variants.

(Keep in mind that I’m still including the variations of musically oriented types of trolls. However, I consider that to be less of a distinct species thing and more of a differing race from location thing. Like, anyone can be a pop or rock troll or something, but most trolls tend to follow whichever music trend they happen to be raised with since it’s just what they know and are used to. It’s less a born physical thing and more of a learned locational thing. The actual born physical stuff is the variations of Giant Trolls, Trollimals, Glitter Trolls, etc. At least, that’s how I’m orienting it within my AU.)

Rainbow Trolls, the more colorful variant that specialized in music and performing and the general maintaining of all Troll’s happiness.

And Forest Trolls, a much less colorful variant that specialized in combat and survival and the maintaining of all Troll’s safety.

Forest Trolls were naturally very dark and more natural looking in their color schemes.

They could still be as colorful as their Rainbow counterparts.

But this was something that really only occurred when they felt safe and happy, their colors brightening to match up with their emotions.

Which is why most of the time, a Forest Troll would remain in their darker colors.

Since their jobs were to make sure that everyone within the Pop Troll kingdom remained safe and secure within the Troll Tree, they were usually very aware of the dangers surrounding them and just how cruel those dangers could be.

This led to most Forest Trolls remaining in their more muted colors, like dark browns and greens, gentle blues and reds, and various shades of almost grey.

(I’m sure someone has had this conversation before and that there are lots of people who disagree with the concept or something but, Branch was actually pretty colorful when he was still Grey. Like, I get that they were in the dark during the pot scene in the first movie, so whatever colors anyone may have retained when they turned grey would have looked even less saturated given how dark it was. But it certainly looked like their colors were fully and properly gone. Like, pure grey. But Branch never really was. He still retained a lot of colors on his skin, his nose, his eyes, and his clothes. He was still pretty saturated, despite having been grey. At least, that’s what I think. Maybe I just have bad eyes. Who knows.)

Similarly, Rainbow Trolls could become fully grey when they felt incredibly negative emotions.

Unlike their Forest counterparts tho, Rainbow Trolls were not meant to be such muted colors and being in such a state could be very bad for their health.

Forest Trolls, however, thrived in the grey.

Usually becoming quite exhausted when they remained too colorful for too long.

The two variants of Troll were opposites in many ways.

But they suited each other just fine, and lived in harmony for a very long time.

Until the Bergens came.

When they arrived, things were relatively peaceful.

The Rainbow Trolls wanted to befriend the new tribe of intelligent creatures.

And the Forest Trolls allowed this thought because they did not see the new species as a threat.

Not until one of them ate a Troll.

Things moved rather quickly after that first incident.

Once the Forest Trolls realized that the Bergens were on the fast track to becoming a threat to their kind, they proposed scaring away the would-be-predators before they became too strong to ward off.

But the Rainbow Trolls refused.

They believed that the Bergens were still their allies.

That there was no way these creatures they believed were their friends would ever do such a terrible thing.

That the Troll the Forest Trolls claimed to have seen being eaten, had in fact simply been killed by another forest creature instead.

That it was actually the fault of the Forest Trolls and their shortcomings as protectors that led to the death of one of their own.

And the Forest Trolls, having agreed that it was in fact their fault for not being cautious enough, could not change the mind of their counterparts.

More Trolls disappeared.

And the Forest Trolls tried again.

But this time, they attempted another tactic.

They suggested the Kingdom simply move.

If the Rainbow Trolls didn’t want to hurt the Bergens or scare them off from their new settlement around the Troll Tree, then maybe the Trolls themselves should simply move away to make room for them.

But, again, the Rainbow Trolls refused.

They didn’t want to leave their new friends.

And they didn’t want to believe the Forest Trolls who seemed to be growing more frantic and hostile with every Troll they lost.

This led to an argument.

An intense fight between the two races of Troll that held no physical violence until the very end of it.

When a single Forest Troll, the one in charge of maintaining the safety of the kingdom, struck the current King in retaliation for him accusing the Forest Trolls of endangering those lost trolls on purpose.

The rift that had been building between the two races finally reached its peak.

And the Forest Trolls decided that they would take their own advice.

They would move to a place far from the Troll Tree.

And leave the Rainbow Trolls at the mercy of the Bergens.

Once the separation happened, a small group of Forest Trolls remained behind, still determined to protect the Rainbow Trolls as much as they could.

But the Bergens were intelligent creatures.

And they knew the threat those Forest Trolls posed.

So they were the ones most swiftly targeted.

Eventually leading to only one Forest Troll remaining.

Only one who escaped with the rest when the newest King finally decided to take the very old advice of the Forest Trolls and escape from the Bergen’s clutches.

But by then, many had forgotten about their Forest counterparts.

And so, only the King and some of the oldest of Trolls, knew why one of them was now permanently grey.

Not simply because he’d lost all his happiness, though that wasn’t far from true either.

But because he still knew the dangers that surrounded them.

And he, just as his ancestors had been, was determined to protect the Kingdom from those dangers.

No matter what it cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title song is "Can't Take It" by The All-American Rejects.  
> Chosen cus I felt it fit relatively well with the entire situation involving the Bergens appearing and the Forest Trolls leaving after trying to convince the Rainbow Trolls to try and save themselves while the Rainbow Trolls refused and started to hound down on them for basically being assholes to their new neighbors.


	2. Drift Away

Trolls are a very magic oriented species.

This used to be even more so the case, them being capable of some incredible feats that seemed to defy the laws of the universe itself.

Over time, as the magic in the world itself slowly diminished, they lost more and more of those abilities until they were left with only a select few.

One such ability, an ability which was actually not exclusive to trolls but which they retained longer than most other species, was the magic of Binding.

Binding magic allowed one to bind another living being to themselves.

There were many various types of bonds one could create.

Each one was unique in its creation and requirements.

And the one type of binding retained by the royal family of the Pop Troll Kingdom, was known as The Knight Bond.

The Knight Bond was a bond between a member of a royal family line and a loyal Knight meant to protect them.

It was a bond built on extreme loyalty and devotion.

A very difficult bond to actually obtain in the first place because of its requirements.

There were only a few select individuals who could suit the role of the Knight within the bond.

These individuals were naturally suited for the bond from birth, but could be rather difficult to find on account of how rare they were.

There is the belief that, within the Troll Kingdom at least, each member of the royal line has one specific Knight amongst the kingdom who is suited for them.

And so it is a tradition for there to be a Knighting Ceremony upon each member of the royal family reaching adulthood.

This ceremony would use a small enchanted orb created from the crystalline remains of an old age Dragon to determine what Troll was suited to the Knight bond.

This way of selecting the Knight, as well as some of the main traits of the Knights themselves, led to the bound Knights gaining a rather dramatic title.

Dragon Knight.

Dragon Knight’s were ferocious and powerful, as their namesakes suggests.

They obsess over their bound royal family member like a Dragon obsessed with their hoard.

Ruthlessly tearing down anything that may cause their King, Queen, Princess, or Prince, harm.

The distinctness of their loyalty, and the depth of their devotion, is displayed thru the binding mark created on both bond bearers when they swear themselves to their royal family member.

The mark is usually something quite intricate, meant to represent the relationship between the two bound trolls in the form of things like plants and/or animals interacting in some way.

The amount of detail in the lines, as well as the image itself, tends to show just how strong the bond actually is.

(King Peppy has a rather detailed bond mark. It shows a bird, singing a song and spreading its wings, within the branches of a great tree, covered in scratch marks and gouges near the base. Poppy and Branch’s marks are just as detailed. A large sunflower, reaching two big leaves towards the flowers at its sides, between two stems of gladiolus flowers, torn up and covered in thorny vines.)

The lines of the bond mark are also meant to match the colors of the troll who gave the mark.

Tho the color disappears if its creator dies.

And has the ability to fade if the creator is close to death.

(Poppy’s mark is usually a gentle blueish grey but sometimes, when Branch is feeling particularly happy, it becomes more of a light seafoam kind of color along with bits of a very blue sort of violet color. Branch’s mark is a bright, almost sparkly, bubblegum pink. King Peppy’s mark was once a mix of bright orange and deep red. Those colors are lost by the time he leads the escape from the Bergens.)

Although, the mark’s colors can disappear for a second, much less tragic, reason.

The mark itself is only ever visible when the one bearing it is thinking about the one who created it.

(Example, Poppy’s mark tends to be visible quite often since she usually has Branch sort of hanging out in the back of her mind most of the time. She doesn’t even realize it’s capable of fading at all until, a few months after getting the mark, she gets really preoccupied with other thoughts while hanging out with her friends and they point out that the mark has disappeared. Which, of course, leads to her panicking which leads to her mentally calling out for help out of concern for whoever her mark is attached to which leads to her thinking about Branch since he’s usually the one to help her out when she’s in trouble which leads to the mark becoming visible again and only making her feel even more confused and panicked.)

The bearer of the mark can even learn to control its visibility so that it can be fully hidden on command, though learning such a skill is difficult and usually requires a large amount of time and focus to master.

The binding creates a mental connection between the two bound parties as well.

For the Dragon Knight, they can sense the distress from their royal family member.

Not in the form of precise words or images or thoughts.

But as a raw and instinctual sort of pull that can sometimes leave the Knight in a frenzy if the distress is strong enough.

(Since Poppy is usually quite positive about things, Branch tends to remain pretty coherent when she’s in distress. Though there have been some exceptional moments where Poppy is so genuinely upset and scared by something that Branch loses himself entirely and basically destroys whatever happens to be in his and her near vicinity, regardless of whether it’s actually causing her distress or not.)

For a royal family member, they can connect to the Knight through dreams and emotions.

If they focus on their Knight and the connection between them, they can experience the emotions currently being felt by their Knight.

They can even share their own emotions with the Knight, gently influencing them from afar.

Through their own dreams, a royal family member can see through the eyes of their Knight if they’re awake.

If the Knight is asleep, they can enter the Knight’s dream, pull the Knight into their own dream, or create a shared dream between the two of them.

(Poppy learns how to do this on accident when Branch goes missing for a couple of days and she ends up focusing so hard on him that she unwittingly creates the mental connection in her sleep and manages to see through his eyes right when he’s in a pretty bad situation. Which, of course, leads to her panicking which leads to branch naturally responding to her distress by finishing what he was in the middle of dealing with so that he can rush back home and meet her halfway, since she managed to get herself a search party set up to go out and look for him finally.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song for the chapter title is "Drift Away" from the Steven Universe Movie Soundtrack.  
> Bit of an explanation for this choice.  
> The song kind of just screams Unconditional and Undying Loyalty to me.  
> Like, literally, "I'll stay here and wait for you for thousands of years just because you told me to." levels of Loyalty.  
> And I think that fits the Dragon Knights(and Branch by extension) to a T.


	3. Karma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had to rush near the end of this cus there's dinner now and I wanted to just finish this ramble before I had to leave and start eating.

Branch doesn’t actually realize he’s a Forest Troll until a few weeks after the plot of the first movie happens.

His parents and grandmother die long before they can explain the concept of Forest Trolls to him.

And Forest Trolls actually start off looking as colorful as Rainbow Trolls, until they reach adolescence or so.

So Branch has no real reason to believe that he’s a different kind of troll from everyone else around him.

And everyone who actually knows the truth kind of assumes that his family members actually told him what he was before they died, especially once he takes on the old role of the village’s protector.

They just assume he’s following in the footsteps of his ancestors on purpose, even tho it’s actually pure coincidence.

So nobody tells him the truth and it never really comes up in conversation either.

So he just spends twenty years assuming that he’s grey because he’s basically broken and unable to be happy.

And then he gets his colors back while helping Poppy in the Bergen pot.

But, really, he only gets so colorful then because he’s feeling very loved and appreciated by his princess and that’s making him very happy, despite the current circumstances.

And his colors stick around because he’s honestly just really happy to be colorful again and he’s still kind of riding off of the high from the moment in the pot all the way thru to the extra happy moments that follow with them creating peace with the Bergens and Poppy being crowned Queen.

His colors maintain themselves for a few days after that as they take all of the trolls home because he’s still quite pleased with “being happy” again and Poppy is almost constantly praising him because of that.

(Even tho Poppy is actually kind of on the fence about the change because she was actually really used to Branch being grey like before and having most of the grumpy troll’s more positive expressions and words all to herself. So now she’s battling a weird mix of jealousy and discomfort while trying to stay positive because Branch having colors means that he’s “happy” now and that’s a good thing, right?)

But then, once things calm down again and Branch returns to his usual routine of maintaining the safety of the village, his colors start to fade.

He worries about it a little, but dismisses it as just his colors readjusting their shade or something since he’s not quite as overly happy as he was before.

They do still flare up quite a bit every time he enters the village and meets up with another troll.

So he figures it’s not really a big deal.

But then he starts turning fully grey again.

And even the flare ups aren’t always as bright and vivid as they used to be.

And Branch starts to quietly panic.

Because what if this means he can’t actually be happy?

What if he actually is broken somehow and he can never be a normal troll like everyone else?

So he starts pushing himself and discovers that he can forcefully make his colors brighter.

So he starts doing that on a regular basis.

But Poppy eventually notices something.

She doesn’t always pay that much attention to her bond mark.

(At this point in the story, she knows what the mark is and how it’s attached to Branch.)

Because of its placement on the crook of her neck, she can’t really see it unless she looks in a mirror.

And she’s so used to it being there that she doesn’t really pay much attention to it unless Branch has disappeared or something.

(She does have a small habit of tracing the slightly raised lines of the design when she’s nervous or thinking really hard.)

So it comes as a surprise to her when she notices something off about it one day.

She’d been examining herself in the mirror a bit and had taken a moment to properly look at her mark when she noticed it.

The lines were grey again.

The same gentle blue-grey they had been when Branch himself had still been grey.

But that didn’t make sense.

Branch had still been colorful the last time she’d seen him.

And the marks had even been colorful too, the last time she paid attention to them a week or so ago.

She started to worry a bit that maybe this meant Branch had turned grey again, that something was wrong.

But then Branch, who’d been coming to get her for something anyways, suddenly rushed in to respond to her distress.

And he wasn’t grey.

He still had his new colors, full and vibrant as they had been since they came back home.

But her lines were still grey.

Thinking that, maybe, it was just a weird problem with the bond, she checks Branch’s mark too.

(Branch’s mark is on his chest, mostly hidden by his vest, right over his heart.)

But his still has the same bright pink as always.

And then Branch notices her mark and realizes what’s going on.

And his panic makes him lose control of his colors.

And suddenly he’s grey again, just the way he was before the Bergen attack.

But he’s ashamed and afraid and really truly genuinely wants to make Poppy happy by showing her that he can be happy too, that he really is actually happy now, he promises.

So it only lasts for a few seconds before he reigns back in his control and forces his colors back.

It’s exhausting.

Already, maintaining the constant color has been extremely tiring.

He’s had barely any energy ever since he started doing it and it’s only been getting worse over time.

But this sudden flickering of colors is pushing his limit just a little too much.

It leaves him lightheaded and woozy.

He stumbles a bit and Poppy has to catch him before he fully falls.

And suddenly he’s grey again because Poppy is scared by this strange new development that she doesn’t understand and that makes his instincts as her Knight flare up with such strength that he can’t think straight anymore.

So he surrounds them both with his hair in a protective little bubble and holds her close while growling at literally nothing.

Poppy very quickly realizes what’s happening and does her best to calm down so that Branch can also calm down enough for her to actually seek out help in figuring out what’s going on.

It takes a few minutes.

Even after getting herself to calm down, Branch is still delirious from both exhaustion and protective instinct taking over.

So it takes a few minutes of Poppy quietly talking and singing and soothingly rubbing his back and petting his twitching ears before he calms down enough to listen to her again.

Once they reach that point tho, Poppy’s base level of worried distress keeps Branch at, slightly woozy, attention enough that he just does exactly what she says without any question or remark past the occasional grunt of acknowledgement.

Poppy doesn’t worry about that at all.

If anything, that quietly comforts her, just a bit.

This had happened before.

In moments where Branch was already very tired and Poppy’s distress was only maybe just slightly above average, he’d become extremely compliant to the point of ignoring everything else besides Poppy herself.

She’d always found it kind of adorable, how he’d basically just follow her around like a very sleepy duckling.

It gives her some solace as she makes her way to her father, Branch still following her step for step while she remains latched onto his arm to help keep herself calm.

When she reaches her father and explains what’s going on, he very quickly figures out what the problem is.

He explains it to her, Branch not even registering any of the words the two are exchanging as being anything other than “not an order from Poppy”, and Poppy is both very relieved and curious about what he tells her.

Her sudden lack of distress almost sends Branch toppling over as his instincts relax alongside her.

But the shock of having to catch him again, as well as the quiet worry over how exhausted he is, leaves Poppy with just enough distress that he manages to recover and stay upright long enough for the two of them to make it back to her pod for a much needed nap.

A much needed nap that lasts for almost a full twenty-four hours.

Not that Poppy truly minds.

She spends the day either napping alongside him or just sitting quietly near him, singing sweet songs and working on her scrapbooks.

(Sometimes also just staring at him as well, not that she’d ever admit it.)

And, when he wakes up, she immediately tells him not to change his colors.

It’s an order, not a suggestion.

So Branch follows it and goes with her to see her father again.

And Peppy tells them about Forest Trolls.

And how Branch is actually a Forest Troll himself.

And Branch suddenly feels both relieved and also incredibly annoyed.

Life would have been much easier for him if he’d known that he was actually just naturally grey instead of grey from lack of happiness.

And Poppy kind of agrees with the sentiment.

It would have saved him a lot of hardships had everyone known the truth.

So she spreads the word and everyone quickly becomes accustomed to Branch only occasionally having brighter colors while still spending most of his time being grey.

And Branch calms down about his colors and doesn’t bother forcing them to be different anymore.

(And Poppy is quietly just relieved to have her normal grumpy grey troll back.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title song is "Karma" by AJR.  
> Meant to relate to Branch and his feelings of confusion and inadequacy when he isn't able to keep his colors.  
> Just a jumble of "Why isn't this working? I thought I was doing better now. Why aren't I normal?".

**Author's Note:**

> Just a comment on the title for this work.  
> The full on AU title is the song "Come What May" from the Moulin Rouge Vol. 2 Soundtrack.  
> Which is something I decided fit just as a thing between Branch and Poppy and just how dedicated they are to each other.


End file.
